The present invention relates generally to flip flop circuits, and more specifically to fast semi-dynamic flip flop circuits.
Flip flop circuits have a wide variety of uses in today""s computers and digital circuits. Flip-flops are one of the most common elements used to implement sequential circuits, in which the primary output relies not only on the current values of the input, but also the previous input values. Flip flop circuits are used to generate a steady state output signal having either a high (logical one) or a low (logical zero) potential, and some flip flop circuits generate complementary output signals having opposite potentials.
Semi-dynamic flip flops are flip flop circuits having a dynamic master stage and a static slave stage. Examples of semi-dynamic flip flop circuits are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,330, issued Apr. 27, 1999 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,900,759, issued May 4, 1999. Designers are constantly striving to improve flip flop circuits, in part because of the widespread use of flip flop circuits in integrated circuits.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for improved flip flop circuits.